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When Julio Ponce Lerou married Augusto Pinochet's daughter Veronica, he was a young man with little more to his name than a forestry degree. Today, he's a billionaire with a net worth FORBES estimates at $3.3 billion.

How, exactly, did he get so rich? Call it business savvy plus political connections on overdrive. In the late 1980s, when it was clear that Pinochet's days as Chile's leader were numbered, his government ramped up privatization efforts, turning many state-owned companies private and benefiting many of the general's allies. One of the companies on the privatization list was Sociedad de Química y Minera de Chile, or, as it is commonly known in Chile, Soquimich. (The company's English name: Chemical and Mining Society of Chile.)

The company has mining rights to one of the world's largest-known deposits of caliche ore and brine deposits, out in northern Chile's breathtaking Atacama Desert, which flanks the Pacific Coast and is ranked by NASA as the driest desert in the world. Thanks to the geological richness of this region, Soquimich is today the world's largest producer of potassium nitrate, iodine and lithium--chemicals used in everyday products like premium fertilizers to improve crop quality; batteries; X-ray technology and LCD screens.

Ponce Lerou was in a position to be well aware of its rich earning potential when the company was up for grabs. Pinochet had named him president of the government agency that supervised the privatization of all state-owned companies. He was also the dictatorship's representative on
SQM's board, and thus privy to the most intimate details about the company's potential.

Ponce Lerou headed up a group of investors that bought up Soquimich shares at what Chilean investigators would later call bargain basement rates. Today, Ponce Lerou is chairman of Soquimich's board and owns a total of 84.1 million shares, or nearly 32% of SQM's total shares, according to SEC filings. That stake is shared with unnamed "related persons", according to SEC filings; FORBES is attributing 10% of the stake to these related persons and 90% to Ponce Lerou, giving him a net worth of $3.3 billion.

He more than likely edged into that wealth on the cheap. One New York Times investigation into Pinochet's personal finances reported that after the fall of Pinochet, Chilean authorities concluded that the state had sold portions of Soquimich for less than one-third of fair market rates. Other high-ranking Pinochet servants benefited from the dictator's privatization policies, gaining both stock and lucrative positions within the firms whose privatization they had aided. In total, Pinochet's favoritism and improprieties cost Chile a reported $2.3 billion (not accounting for inflation), an investigative panel in Chile concluded in 2005. (Ponce Lerou and Pinochet's daughter eventually divorced.)

The company listed its shares as ADRs on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. It currently sports a market capitalization of $11 billion on revenues of $2.5 billion.

SQM referred all calls about its chairman's net worth and stake to Ponce Lerou's Pampa Calichera holding company. Pampa Calichera did not respond to FORBES' multiple requests for comment.

I’m a staff writer at Forbes covering real estate: from ultra-luxury homes to foreclosures to the people making the deals happen. Until recently, I was a member of our…

I’m a staff writer at Forbes covering real estate: from ultra-luxury homes to foreclosures to the people making the deals happen. Until recently, I was a member of our Forbes wealth team, crunching numbers for our Forbes 400 and World’s Billionaires lists. Before that I investigated a former Hell’s Angel for the City Pages of Minneapolis, trekked to the U.S.-Mexico border with the Minutemen for the Orange County Register, and exposed Michael Jackson’s property tax problems for the Santa Maria Times. A born and bred Westerner with strong ties in Minnesota, I love calling NYC home. Twitter: erin_carlyle. Got tips? Email me at ecarlyle@forbes.com.